We present experimental results that show the spatial variations of the diffuse-backscattered intensity, when linearly polarized light is incident on highly scattering media. Experiments on polystyrene-sphere suspensions demonstrate that the radial and azimuthal variations of the observed pattern depend on the concentration and size of the particles constituting the scattering medium. Measurements performed on rodent-cell suspensions show the potential of this method for biological-cell characterization, especially the distinction between normal and cancerous cells.